Dutch Volleyball player who raped 12-year-old British girl qualifies for Paris Olympics

Well the olympics is in Paris, he is a Dutch passport holder, both are in Schengen/eu so no visa is required.

why would the uk be able to block someone going to Paris?

Sorry French durr. I wonder if because it's the EU it's different.

How do visas for the Olympic Games work? Could the UK refuse him, based on him being a convicted sex offender who has travelled to commit offences? In which case, who do we email?

It’s worse than this, he groomed her on Facebook then travelled to the uk to meet a 12 year old, he knew her age, he was 19, he got her drunk and raped her. She’s self harmed and had mental health crisis. He says he’s ‘not a monster’. He effing well is!! He should be in prison still.

I'm so shocked that a man who definitely did a rape and even admitted it and a little child where he drugged her and left her with trauma etc only served 12 months in prison?

That's absolutely ridiculous! You know in the Victorian times a man could be hanged for raping a child of 12.

I think the safety of children whether they are British, Dutch, Thai, Pakistan, Samoan etc should be everyones concern. No 12yr old anywhere in the world should have that happen to them.

He shouldn’t be there and I’m pretty disgusted that the Dutch sporting authorities thought he was a good representative of his country.

@LiquoriceAllsorts2 Yes agree - but countries generally manage to overlook stuff when they want to win - this being a case in point.

Eugh, you're right there.

But some countries probably class people being gay as sex offenders so I am not sure it’s easy to set blanket rules like that

Spot the male poster

Is that the sports organisations bestowing their knowledge about paedophilia on us there? When you think about these competitions, there are v young girls floating around for gymnastics etc. it's clear you can't have a child rapist anywhere near them. Nobody is protecting them 😞

'Nevobo and the Dutch NOC said in a statement that they supported van de Velde, adding that they, along with the FIVB, had consulted experts who considered his chance of recidivism “nil.”'

Thick as fucking mince. Sex offending has the highest recidivism rates with the lowest conviction rates. Not only is the chance of recidivism high, the chances of him getting away with it are high too.

Tempted to buy tickets to go and boo the shitty arsehole.

It’s not surprised the Olympics don’t have any code of ethics especially around women. They’re so out of touch.

Bloody hell are you for real?

In August 2014, he raped a 12-year-old child he met on Facebook who lived in Milton Keynes, England. He travelled to her home and, when she was without any parental supervision, gave her alcohol and then raped her several times at the home as well as in a nearby lake.[5] The victim would eventually go on to self-harm and once overdosed.[6] Van de Velde returned to the Netherlands after the rape, although he was eventually extradited to the United Kingdom and arrested in January 2016.[7]
(Wikipedia)

It's everyone's fucking business.

Yeah I'm annoyed at the Netherlands' rape laws. Esp given they have (imho) good, liberal laws re assisted dying.

Didn't they ban Russia when they invaded Ukraine? Fairly quick sharp.

The Olympics should have a code of ethics … a regulated and firm code of ethics and ‘convicted sex offenders’ would be an obvious infringement. Possibly they can usually rely on countries to self regulate as they wouldn’t want their home country being brought into disrepute. Not the case for the Netherlands 😳

YANBU @MidnightPatrol. I am disgusted at the decision by the Dutch committee to put him on the team and I fear for any children he ends up coaching in the future.

I see that it is difficult for the olympics to get involved. Lots of people have committed what are considered serious crimes in their own country which I (and many others ) don’t see as a crime. For example, being gay/talking out against the government etc. I think it’s fair that the Olympic committee doesn’t get involved.

I am very disappointed in the Netherlands but I already was anyway with their rape laws. Sex without consent was recently made a crime, but still isn’t considered rape.

This unrepentant rapist should still be in jail
I'm very surprised and disappointed in his country and the Olympics
If I was on the right continent I'd go and protest
Poor girl will be traumatised seeing him on tv etc

Until very recently sex without consent was not a crime in the Netherlands. For it to be rape it has to be violent.

the Dutch olympics authority seem to be ok with it on the basis that he was convicted under English law (suggesting they don’t see him as having done anything wrong).

its disgusting but so are the Dutch rape law.

I guess the 10% gives you an idea of the number of incels/mras squatting round here. Sad fuckers.

What a truly asinine comment. Did you actually engage any kind of brain cells before typing?

I’m sure his victim, a British child, disagrees.

I don’t want him at the Olympics, but I don’t think that it’s the IOC’s responsibility to manage who each country sends. There were over 11,000 athletes sent to Tokyo and the IOC doesn’t have the time or resources to do a background check on all of them, in the weeks they have available to do it. The IOC are also an organisation who are largely seen as corrupt and useless and giving them more power isn’t a move which I think most would support.

This is all on the NOC, and I think the full support they are putting behind someone who travelled countries to get a child drunk and rape her is shameful. As is the athlete’s statement that we can’t judge as we don’t know his side of the story. I’m perfectly happy to judge him (and also his wife who is a German volleyball player and police officer and married him after this happened).